


Venom is used to Protect

by Bookmonkey



Series: Sting Like a Bee [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Prologue, Sympathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 08:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14445669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookmonkey/pseuds/Bookmonkey
Summary: Chloe knows she isn't the best person. She knows exactly what made her venomous. Even so, she will do absolutely anything for her best friend.





	Venom is used to Protect

**Author's Note:**

> I've been curious as to why Chloe is the way she is, so I decided to explore that avenue of thought. Enjoy!

They met when they were just little tykes. Their mothers were friends. They had so many play dates Chloe used to think of the boy as her brother that just slept in a different house. They were simple children back then, not quite understanding what it meant to be a Bourgeois or an Agreste. They played and laughed and spent a lot of time together.

Chloe bragged about it. The fact she knew Adrien since they were little. It was true, and she loved being able to brag about stuff like that. About knowing other famous people. Being daughter of the mayor got her things like that, connections, and of course, whatever money could buy.

She liked the things. She enjoyed the connections, but she was proudest of all, of her friendship with Adrien. Adrien was well known, her age, and somehow, so much better than anyone else near their status Chloe had ever met. Adrien, despite being rich and famous and just, probably as spoiled as she was in terms of material items, was just so much better.

Adrien was just a good person all around, a better person than she could ever be, and Chloe was proud of that, proud she was there when Adrien first showed her how kind he could be.

#

**Age: 5**

Chloe tried to follow. Her short little legs couldn't keep up. The purple suitcase was rolling away from her. The thin fingers dragging it along behind the woman with the flicking blond ponytail was getting farther and farther away. She cried out. Chloe let tears fall down her face and she yelled at the top of her little lungs.

The woman kept walking, not looking back. Chloe screamed some more, calling for the woman. The woman ducked into a white limousine, which drove away, past Chloe, with no hesitation. Chloe threw herself to the ground, banging her little fists against the pavement.

She didn't understand. Crying usually got her whatever she wanted. So why didn't all the crying, that day, and the day after that, bring her mommy back?

No one would explain this too her. Her father kept saying it would be okay. But how could things be okay without her mommy? The servants kept looking away, hushed whispers stopping whenever she even looked their way.

It had been two days, when Adrien came over for their usual Saturday play date. He came in, dressed in nice, but casual clothes. Chloe refused to get out of the pj's her mother had helped her put on, but Adrien, unlike everyone else, didn't comment on what she was wearing.

"Hi Chlo." Chlo, a nickname, that Chloe, even then, wasn't sure how she got it, or why Adrien felt like shortening her name, but she liked it. She liked it cos other people didn't like it, and it was something that made both Adrien and her mother smile at. Though, this time, even though she smiled, she couldn't say anything back to Adrien. Crying and words weren't getting her what she wanted, the little girl was testing if silence would do her any better. "Chlo?"

Chloe bit her lip, looking at the blond boy, his green eyes always so enchanting. A spark of wonder at the world outside the hotel her father owned or his own mansion. He was always looking out, beyond, and neither of them really even understood what the world even meant yet. They just knew what it expected of them.

"What do you want to do today Chlo?" Adrien held out a hand. Chloe caught a glimpse of Adrien's mother, walking to the servants, and Chloe launched herself at Adrien.

"I want my mommy!" She pressed her small head into the crook of the boy's neck. Even at five he smelled like his father, the tiniest drop of cologne either rubbing off on him, or spritzed while the boy tried to get his father's attention. Adrien wrapped his arms around Chloe. She let tears fall again. "Why? Why did my mommy leave?" Chloe wasn't sure why she asked him. He was just a kid like her, why would he have an answer that none of the adults told her.

"I don't know," his voice was soft. Chloe took fistfuls of the boy's shirt, pulling him closer. "Did your mommy like seeing you cry?" Chloe shook her head. "She would rather you smile, even if she's not here right now. She would want you to be happy." Chloe pulled back, looking at the kid in front of her. He suddenly seemed so wise, thoughtful, kind. And she had seen him stick a grape up his nose to see if he could shoot it at her from across the table. "So, what would make you happy right now?" Chloe pursed her lips.

"Ice cream. And playing house." Adrien moved his hands away from Chloe's back, and to her tummy, tickling her. She shrieked, trying to push his hands away.

"Not the tickle monster game?" She laughed, lunging at the boy again, hands aimed for his armpits, his tickle spot. They laughed and played the tickle game, and eventually had ice cream and played house too.

Years later, looking back, Chloe realized the lesson she should have learned was that good friends and laughter was a key to happiness, but she wasn't that wise.

#

**Age: 9**

Chloe went to public school. Something she hated, being stuck with people so far below her on the social chain she couldn't even wrap her mind around how they lived, and why they seemed so happy. But that was one thing her father wouldn't budge on. She was at public school, and she had to get decent grades, and she had to well, try.

She was jealous Adrien got to stay home and be taught by his parents and tutors. At least he was guaranteed comfortable desks and no annoying classmates. She didn't understand why he wanted to go public school.

There was a new girl in Chloe's class, Lizzie. And Lizzie and Chloe quickly hit it off, besides Adrien, Lizzie was Chloe's closest friend. They did a ton of stuff during the week together, homework and shopping mostly. Chloe was perfectly fine sharing everything with Lizzie. That was what friends did.

Chloe was in the art closest, it was lunch time, and the closet door had a habit of shutting with people inside. Not that it locked them in or anything, but Chloe knew since the door was shut, that was why she heard Lizzie talking to other girls in their class.

"Chloe is such a mean spoiled little rich girl." Chloe's arm froze as she reached up for the red paint. "I mean she gets everything she could want and then some."

"But didn't she buy you that backpack that glows in the dark?"

"Only cos she thought my old one was worn out and ugly and she was embarrassed to be seen with me with an ugly backpack." Chloe blinked back tears. Lizzie's backpack was worn out, and a little ugly, but Lizzie had said it, while sighing at the glow in the dark backpack with the look in her eyes that told Chloe the girl wanted it. Chloe knew Lizzie moved a lot, so they didn't get a lot of new things, so Chloe bought Lizzie the backpack.

And that same girl was calling her mean and spoiled for trying to be nice.

"Well, she can't say your painting is ugly, it has to be the best one in the class." The girls laughed as they left the room, they must have just forgotten something. Chloe walked out of the closest, red paint in hand. She was going to use it to finish her painting of the merry-go-round at the park, but Chloe cared less about her own painting and more about Lizzie's. Lizzie's perfectly proportioned painting of the hotel lobby where Chloe lived. The painting Chloe convinced her father to let Lizzie do, seeing as she had to stand in the lobby for hours in order to get everything right.

Chloe dipped her fingers in the red paint, applying it to Lizzie's painting. Chloe then grabbed a tarp and covered Lizzie's painting. She smirked as she walked out of the room.

Chloe was the first one back to the art room that afternoon, and Lizzie was last. When the teacher gave them permission to finish up their paintings, Lizzie pulled back the tarp, revealing what Chloe did. The girl started crying, and Chloe walked over, chuckling.

"Guess your painting is ugly now, huh Lizzie?" Chloe tilted her head, proud of the bright red block letters U-G-L-Y scrawled diagonally across the painting.

With that comment, Lizzie knew it was her, accusing Chloe and the two of them sat in the principle's office. Lizzie cried and played innocent and refused to even acknowledge that she did anything wrong. Chloe refused to say anything at first, not sure what she wanted to say about the girl who had been a friend, before she called her exactly what Chloe knew she came off as. She tried not too, but she wasn't always that good at it. She thought Lizzie understood that she was rich, probably spoiled, but wasn't trying to be mean.

Apparently Chloe was dead wrong. Chloe decided to change strategies for finding new friends. Her new friends would have to get past the fact that Chloe was rich, and spoiled, and sometimes mean. She wouldn't be nice until she felt she could trust them. First her mother and now Lizzie broke that trust and Chloe wasn't going to be fooled a third time.

"Yeah," she glared at the principle, "I painted ugly on her painting, but what are you going to do about it?" She crossed her arms, "I'm sure my dad won't be very happy if I got in big trouble." Chloe should have gotten detention, she knew that. But all the principle did was disqualify her from the student art competition. Her painting could still hang up in the show, but she would not be able to take home a ribbon. Chloe shrugged her shoulders, she didn't think her painting could have won anyway.

Lizzie's family moved again a few months later, and Chloe had become the mean spoiled rich girl all her classmates thought she was from the beginning.

Chloe kept this incident to herself, she didn't want to burst Adrien's bubble about the possibility he could make new friends if only he went to school.

#

**Age: 10**

They still got together, about twice a month. They weren't called play dates anymore, but Chloe still thought of them in that way. Adrien would come over to the hotel, and they would hang in the private rooms she shared with her father and their servants.

"What have you been doing in school?" Adrien was sitting, perfect posture, on a plush chair in Chloe's living room. She knew she should be sitting properly too, but she let herself relax in privacy, Adrien, for some reason, didn't. She was kinda slouched in the chair opposite him.

"Ugh, that science stuff you learned like, two months ago. I mean, I can't believe how many of the stupid idiots get the questions wrong. I should be home schooled too. I need to like, be ahead like you if I don't want to get lost in the swarm of normal people." Chloe pursed her lips, knowing she had chosen some words that Adrien didn't approve of. Most people wouldn't be able to tell with his face seeming the same as it was when he asked the question, but Chloe knew the slight lowering of the eyebrows meant he didn't completely agree with her.

"Chlo, you'll be fine. I mean, at least you see what the world is like." Chloe rolled her eyes. "I mean, what do kids our age do?"

"Nothing that we don't do. They talk, they play, they get annoying and angry and jealous, something we don't get." Except Chloe and Adrien both knew that wasn't true. Adrien was jealous of Chloe's life outside her family, the experience of public school and meeting people that didn't care about their names. Chloe was jealous of Adrien getting to stay at home, and the fact he had both parents to dote on him.

As best friends, they knew these things, they just never really talked about it. They talked around it, trying to ease the jealously by downplaying what the other person was jealous about.

#

**Age 13 (and a half)**

Chloe loved her phone. It kept her connected to social media, to all of her famous connections, and it kept her in contact with her best friend, even when their schedules got so busy they couldn't have their monthly "play dates" anymore. They texted, a lot, and sent pictures and even called when they needed to hear the other's voice. Sometimes in the middle of the night. It didn't matter since Chloe's dad didn't seem to notice, and since Adrien was home schooled he didn't have to get up as early as Chloe anyway.

She didn't like that she wasn't supposed to look at it during school. She did anyway, but she hated having to pull her last name and her father's influence so she wouldn't get in trouble every time she got caught. It was annoying.

But she did it cos her best friend would text her in the middle of the day, and she had to text back. She knew that, even though he said he understood when she said she was busy at school and couldn't always respond right away, but she knew he was afraid she was having too much fun in the so called "real" world and would forget about him. She couldn't let her best friend think she was ignoring him, or forgetting about him.

 

 **Adrikins:** hey don't you have a field trip today

 **Chlo:** yeah to the stupid smelly zoo

 

Chloe looked up in time to see a baby elephant wrap its trunk around its mother's tail. Chloe kept the aww moment inside her head.

 

 **Adrikins:** Better than staring at the same walls every day

 **Chlo:** No cos the animals smell and the people are annoying and the sun is hot and I'll probably turn into a lobster

 

Chloe hid her phone behind her just as the teacher looked her way. Chloe was called up to pet the sting rays. She swallowed, but didn't hesitate to put her hands in, she would not let her classmates think she was scared. The sting rays were cool, she even got to hold a shrimp and one of them sucked it right out from between her fingers. She smiled and was happy, and she thought the zoo was cool again.

 

 **Adrikins:** Come on Chlo, it can't be that bad

 **Chlo:** I just let a sting ray eat out of my hand and it was so cool and different, and I totally showed my classmates I am not just some prissy rich kid

Chloe deleted it before she hit send.

 

  
**Chlo:** It totally is. I was forced to stick my hand into a pool of water with the gross rays, the ones that could kill you. Ugh, they are lucky they cut off the stingers or I would have called a lawyer.

 **Adrikins:** You mean it was really cool and you are saying a bunch of bad stuff about it trying to make me feel better since you and I both know the closest I'll ever get to to the zoo is posing with cats for my father's fashion line.

 **Chlo:** Yeah well, you play down the fact your mother is the photographer and you constantly have her attention all day long.

 

Chloe checked her phone constantly for the rest of the zoo trip. She wondered if they finally took their little game of trying to push away jealousy a little too far. She wondered if she really did make him upset. She feared she lost her best friend.

The second the school bell rang at the end of the day, so did her phone. She grabbed it, her best friend's name was on the screen.

"Adrien!" She couldn't help the bubbly tone she answered in, she was glad he was calling, it meant she hadn't ruined everything.

"Chlo," she immediately frowned. That wasn't his usual tone. It was dimmer, darker, sadder. "Chlo, my mother, she, I,"

"I'm coming over," Chloe didn't wait to hear the rest of the sentence.

"But my father-"

"Won't turn away the mayor's daughter when she wants to see her best friend." Chloe was already running out of the doors to the school. "He tries it, and just see what my father will do to him." Adrien didn't respond. "Just go wait by the buzzer so I don't have to stand by the gate too long, I've had more than enough sun already today."

"Okay Chlo." Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. He hung up first, and Chloe shoved her phone in her backpack and ran all the way from school to the Agreste mansion. The gym teachers would have been proud of her, and the track team girls would have been jealous. Chloe didn't run full out, or try too hard for anyone, but this was for Adrien's sake.

Chloe pressed the buzzer. "Chlo?"

"I," Chloe put her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. "I know you can see me, just hit the stupid buzzer." The gate unlocked and Chloe ran again, finding Adrien opening in the front door, hair disheveled and tear stains on his face. "Adrien?" She paused on his stoop. The boy gestured her inside.

"Please come in. Would you like some water or lemonade?" Chloe curled her fingers into fists. Now, of all times, he was being a perfect host? What was the point when the person you were hosting could tell there was pain behind the mask of a smile?

"That can wait," Chloe grabbed the boys arm, pulling him onto the couch, before he walked into the kitchen. "Plus, that's what servants are for. What happened?" Chloe let go of Adrien's arm, knowing her need for physical contact wasn't always matched by him, though he usually tolerated her being touchy with him, because they were best friends.

"Dad fired everybody except my bodyguard and his assistant." Adrien made to stand up again, but Chloe pulled him back down.

"What about your mother?" Chloe reached over, brushing back Adrien's bangs.

"She-she's gone Chlo." Chloe bit her lip, watching as the tears started coming down his face again. "I went to go wake her up for breakfast, and she wasn't there. And we've tried calling and texting, but it goes straight to voicemail, no response."

"I'm so sorry Adrien." No wonder he was extra snippy with her today, pointing out her lies when they usually just went along with them. And no wonder he didn't say anything with Chloe's response about his mother doting on him. This time, Adrien wrapped his arms around Chloe, burying his face in her shoulder.

She rubbed his back, saying nothing, allowing the boy to cry in peace. Even if she was a little disappointed in him for not telling her that morning, letting her have a somewhat exciting zoo trip while he panicked alone and dealt with the pain alone surrounding his mother.

"Thanks Chlo." Adrien slowly sat up, his tears completely subsided. Chloe felt a little bit of pride, knowing she was all he had in the way of friends, proud she had handled herself well, and he was grateful.

"Well, now that you are done crying, what would make you happy?" She remembered Adrien's first visit after her own mother walked out, and wanted to repay the favor. Adrien blinked at her. Chloe wasn't sure Adrien remembered, they didn't talk about the past much, especially that rough patch in Chloe's life, but that was okay. She remembered. "How about a tickle fight?" And the girl lunged to her best friend, fingers digging gently into his armpits, getting him to laugh the same way he had gotten her to laugh for the first time after her mom left.

It was by no means a one sided battle, the two of them attacking each other until they lay breathless on the floor, Chloe not sure when they had tumbled off the couch, but knowing she took a hit to the elbow when they did. They lay there, side by side, catching their breath.

"Doesn't your school have summer break soon?" Adrien finally asked.

"Yeah, starting next week."

"We should hang out this summer." Chloe turned her head, watching Adrien's face as he waited for a response.

"Why wouldn't we?" Adrien blinked a little, and Chloe poked the boy in the side. "I mean, I'll show up everyday if you want."

"But I still have tutors."

"I'll learn with you. I'm sure my father will be thrilled I want to spend my summer learning instead of shopping and tanning."

"But, you hate school."

"But if I study with you, I'll already know everything for next year and I won't have to pay attention in class." Adrien rolled his eyes, with a little smile. A natural smile, not like the ones posted all around Paris from various modeling shoots. Chloe sat up, knowing it was about time to put her venom back on display. "I would love to show up all the idiots from school."

"I get it." Adrien sighed, but with more weight than Chloe wold have liked.

"Idiot." She mussed his hair. "I would love to hang out with you, and if that means school over the summer, I'll do that. Because we both know otherwise we'll barely see each other."

"Thanks Chlo."

"That's what best friends are for."

#

**Age: 14**

Chloe and Adrien spent the summer together. About six hours a day during the week they were studying with the tutors his father hired. And then, every Sunday, as long as the two parents were given good reports, Adrien was allowed to come to Chloe's house for the whole day.

Chloe worked hard during the week, knowing Adrien needed to get out of his house. She could see the difference in him when he was trapped in his mansion vs allowed to be at hers.

Chloe was worried about him. He still was nice to her, nicer than she probably deserved, but he couldn't seem to quite get over his mother disappearing. Maybe it was because he was older, and had more time with her, or maybe it was because his mother and father and Chloe were basically all Adrien had, and missing one, left him off balance.

Chloe didn't want to admit it, even to herself, but Adrien Agreste was a people person, and he didn't have people. He was unlike her in the fact that Chloe was fine with just Adrien as a friend, it didn't bother her too much, but it seemed to bother him. So, when it was time for Chloe to go back to public school, she swallowed every ounce of pride she had for the sake of her best friend.

Adrien was at a photo shoot a few days before classes would start. And Chloe went to the mansion anyway, demanding to see Gabriel Agreste. He let her into his office, no doubt because she could call her father who could make it hard to do business in Paris.

"What do I owe the pleasure of this visit Chloe Bourgeois?" Gabriel Agreste was a tall, thin man, intimidating in the way he seemed to control everything about his business from the comfort of his own home. No one had seen him step outside the mansion since his wife disappeared.

"I think Adrien should come to school with me." Chloe stayed standing, locking her knees to keep from shaking.

"Really?"

"It has been all he has wanted for years. Please. Don't you see your son has lost the spark in his eyes since his mother disappeared?"

"You know better than anyone, that the real world could destroy him further. Even you have locked up your little golden heart behind words of venom." Chloe clenched her fists.

"Locking him behind real walls is worse! He hates it! And if you keep him here he's going to hate you!"

"And he won't hate the mean spirited girl you have become in the real world?" Chloe looked down, knowing he was right. Adrien wouldn't like the way she treated people around her at school, he would hate to see her play up her richness and act like the snobbiest, meanest, movie character they could think of.

"This isn't about me. This is about Adrien. And...he's too kind to get all twisted like me."

"You want me to let him outside these walls so bad you are willing to lose him?" Chloe felt her eyes water.

"He deserves better than me anyway." Her voice was quite, laced with self hatred at admitting what she long thought was true. Adrien would find someone better than her, and he would totally deserve it.

"Tell you what," Chloe looked up, wiping away the tears in her eyes as quickly as possible. "I'll let Adrien try public school, there are going to be conditions he has to follow, and one condition you have to follow." Chloe nodded. "Keep being the mean spoiled rich girl to everyone but Adrien at school. You are good at hurting other people, so why not just stick to what you are good at."

"You...want me to be a horrible person?"

"And Adrien will have more freedom." That was the word. It wasn't school that he really craved, Adrien craved freedom. Adrien needed freedom, before the dark cloud over his head swallowed him whole.

"Fine. I won't change my attitude to my classmates, as long as Adrien gets to come to school." Chloe didn't hesitate. She wanted to help Adrien, and she wasn't thrilled with the idea of changing and acting nice just because Adrien was around. She had thought she might tone things down a little, but why bother when Gabriel Agreste wanted her to keep up her old act. "And, this little meeting never happened." Chloe knew Adrien wouldn't agree to such a deal, but since this was for his own good, it was just better he never knew. Gabriel Agreste agreed, and they shook on it.

Chloe knew she wasn't a good person for taking such a twisted deal. But when she saw Adrien walk into her classroom a few days later, she couldn't help but launch herself at him and give him a hug. She could tell a huge weight was off his shoulders and there was the spark of excitement back in his eyes.

She wasn't a good person, but Adrien was, and he was happy again. So Chloe was content.

#

**Age: 14 (and a half)**

Chloe was infatuated with Ladybug. The superhero that had showed up with Chat Noir to save Paris from innocent people turning into super villains.

Chloe kinda wished she could be Ladybug, and be helpful and loved for a change, but she couldn't.

Chloe was locked in a deal, and she wasn't stupid like her classmates believed. Seeing how more than half the people became villains after something she said or did to them, as she continued to play the part of mean, spoiled rich girl, Chloe knew it was her fault.

Ladybug and Chat Noir once asked her why she couldn't try to be nicer.

She didn't tell them, couldn't tell them.

Chloe wasn't stupid. She suspected the man who signed her up for such a twisted deal had a reason, and his reason was tied to the superheros and her best friend. She didn't have to be told that if she told anybody, one, they wouldn't believe her, and two, it would only mean the freedom she had gotten her best friend would be taken away.

Even if Adrien didn't think she was his best friend anymore. Even if he threatened to actually stop being her friend. He was still her best friend, and she was willing to sting everyone in her path so he would be free.

Losing him to smiles and laughter was so much more bearable than losing him to the dark shadow that had clung to him inside that mansion.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
